If you have questions about the alternative assessment procedure, contact us at 667-5645 or toll-free in Canada at 1-800-661-0443, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Alternative Assessment Procedure

Interjurisdictional Trucking and Transport

If you’re a truck or transport firm located in Yukon and your workers travel to other provinces, or if your firm is outside Yukon but your workers travel within the territory, you must register and pay premiums for these workers in each of the jurisdictions they travel through. This practice is consistent with workers’ compensation board requirements across Canada.

The good news is you can pay through the alternative assessment procedure (AAP), which simplifies premium payments for interjurisdictional trucking and transport firms.

Employers and workers in each province or territory using the alternative procedure receive the same rights, benefits and protection as those who don’t travel between jurisdictions.

What is the alternative assessment procedure (AAP)?

The alternative assessment procedure is an optional way for Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board to assess premiums for trucking and transport firms.

When you sign up for the procedure, you register for workers’ compensation coverage in each province or territory your firm operates or has workers. But, you’ll only pay premiums for eligible workers in the jurisdiction or jurisdictions where your workers live and typically work. (An eligible worker is one who works in more than one jurisdiction and has workers’ compensation coverage from one board for work performed anywhere in Canada.)

The alternative assessment procedure is available to the following interjurisdictional trucking and transport industries:

Bulk liquids trucking

Couriers, messengers, and delivery

Dry bulk materials trucking

Forest products trucking

General freight trucking

Specialized freight trucking

Used household and office goods moving

Charter bus industry

Interurban and rural bus transportation

Land, scenic, and sightseeing transportation

Is alternative assessment my only option?

No. However, it is the simplest way for you to report earnings and pay premiums. If you choose not to sign up for alternative assessment, you must prorate the earnings of your workers based on the distance they’ve travelled and pay premiums to each province or territory in which your workers travel.

Sign up before the February 28 deadline

You can sign up for alternative assessment when you register with YWCHSB, or when you begin operating in a qualifying interjurisdictional trucking or transport industry.

If you are currently registered with YWCHSB and have interjurisdictional trucking operations, you can switch to alternative assessment at the beginning of each calendar year. If you’re making the switch, remember to submit your application before February 28.

How do I sign up?

Send your completed alternative assessment application to the workers’ compensation authority in your home province or territory. (Your home province or territory is where your firm’s head office is located, provided you have drivers living and ordinarily working in that province or territory.)

Once your application is accepted, the workers’ compensation authority in your home province or territory will use this information to decide which other workers’ compensation authorities should be advised of your interjurisdictional trucking activities. It will contact other Canadian workers’ compensation authorities as required to advise them of your operations.

The workers’ compensation authority in your home province or territory will be an assessing board for the alternative assessment procedure. If you have workers who live and usually work in a province or territory outside your home province or territory, the workers’ compensation authority in that province or territory will also be an assessing board. You have to report payroll and remit assessments to all assessing boards. The workers’ compensation boards in the provinces or territories where your workers drive, or work in temporarily, will be the registering boards for the alternative assessment procedure. You will not be required to pay premiums to the registering boards.

How will the registering boards know I’m paying my premiums to YWCHSB?

If YWCHSB is the assessing board, we will contact the registering boards on your behalf to let them know you have signed up for the alternative assessment procedure.

What if I hire new workers?

Please keep your account information up to date. If you hire someone new, who lives in another province or territory, you must inform the registering and assessing boards. You should also tell them if you no longer have workers living in an assessing province.

What happens if one of my workers is injured?

If your worker is entitled to compensation coverage in more than one jurisdiction, they may apply for compensation benefits in either their home province or the province where the injury took place.

How alternative assessment works

The alternative assessment procedure simplifies the payment of premiums for interjurisdictional trucking and transport firms.

Here’s how it works:

Example 1 — All workers live in Yukon

ABC Trucking Ltd. is located in Yukon and hauls freight from Yukon to Ontario. The firm’s drivers and other workers live in Yukon ABC’s trucks drive 60 per cent of their kilometres in Yukon and 10 per cent in each of the other five provinces. The firm is required to register in Yukon (the assessing board), as well as in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario (the registering boards). ABC Trucking selects the alternative assessment procedure and reports all of its drivers’ earnings to YWCHSB. As the assessing board, YWCHSB informs the other workers’ compensation boards that ABC Trucking has signed up for the alternative assessment procedure. The firm is registered with each of the five registering boards, but only pays premiums to YWCHSB.

Example 2 — Workers live in more than one jurisdiction

ABC Trucking Ltd. is located in Yukon and hauls freight from Yukon to Ontario. Ten of the firm’s drivers and other workers live in Yukon; two workers live in Alberta. The firm selects the alternative assessment procedure and reports all earnings for Yukon residents to YWCHSB. The firm also registers with the Workers’ Compensation Board of Alberta, and reports earnings for eligible workers who live in Alberta. The assessing boards, Yukon and Alberta, advise the registering boards, BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, that ABC Trucking has signed up for the alternative assessment procedure. The firm will be registered with each of the registering boards, but it will pay premiums only in Alberta and Yukon.